FROM THIS EPISODE

In Baghdad today, US Secretary of State of John Kerry met face to face with the embattled Iraqi Prime Minister who agreed to form a new more inclusive government starting next week. The meeting comes at a time when the militant group ISIS shows no sign of stopping, as this weekend it seized more towns and key border posts. American officials aren’t calling it “boots on the ground,” but the first wave of US military advisers has arrived in Baghdad. Can they revive the scattered Iraqi army? Or is it up to Shiite militias? Could new intelligence soon lead to US air strikes?

Also, the Supreme Court rules on the EPA's authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and safety in the age of drones.

Banner Image: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (R) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meet at the Prime Minister's Office in Baghdad June 23, 2014. Kerry met Iraq's prime minister in Baghdad on Monday to push for a more inclusive government, even as Baghdad's forces abandoned the border with Jordan, leaving the entire Western frontier outside government control. REUTERS/Brendan Smialowski/Pool

This morning the Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency, in some cases, does not have the authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions. While the decision creates a minor setback for the EPA, it’s seen as good news for the agency and the Obama Administration, which announced landmark clean-air regulations earlier this month. Here to tell us about the decision and the precedent it’s expected to set for future high-court decisions is Ben Geman, the Energy and Environment Correspondent for the National Journal.

This weekend the militant Islamic group ISIS captured two major border crossings and 4 cities in the north and west of Iraq. Last week as the insurgency intensified, President Obama offered military advisors to help the struggling Iraqi military, but no boots on the ground. Today Secretary of State John Kerry assured Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the US support in Iraq will be “intense and sustained.” After a two-hour meeting with the Prime Minister, Secretary Kerry spoke to the press in Baghdad, repeating calls for the Iraqi leadership to immediately form a more inclusive government. The President may yet order air strikes to help beat back ISIS, which has taken over a large amount of Iraqi territory in a very short time.

By most accounts, the U.S. airspace is safer than ever; fatal crashes involving passenger jets are exceedingly rare, and the Pentagon reports that the accident rate for drones is on the decline. But as the military and the federal government gear up for a planned expansion of drones in domestic airspace, crashes are mounting. Hundreds of U.S. military drones have crashed in major accidents around the world since 2001, 49 of them have fallen out of American skies. And that’s according to a year-long investigation by the Washington Post. The investigation’s lead author, Craig Whitlock, joins us. He covers the Pentagon and National Security for the Post.